a4o RENASCENT INDIA

latter were in the position of people who wanted to keep their
cake and to eat it at the same time. They considered it necessary,
in order to retain their popularity, to talk extremism, and yet
were resolved to essay parliamentarism. As a consequence
the Swarajists were driven to a course of quibbling, as to when
cooperation was non-cooperation. One after another of the
leaders took a course which was just that of a Liberal, yet all
the time protesting that they were true to the principle of
non-cooperation. In June 19255 Motilal Nehru accepted a seat
on the Skeen Commission, appointed to enquire into the
possibility of more rapidly Indianizing the Army, Shortly
after, Mr. Tambe accepted the post of Executive Councillor
in the Central Provinces, and Mr. Vithalbhai J. Patel allowed
himself to be elected as first Indian "Speaker" of the Legis-
lative Assembly. Lajpat Rai tamely entered the Legislative
Assembly at the same time, after previous fierce opposition to
such watering down of Non-Cooperation, The Maharashtra
leaders, such as Messrs. Jayakar and Kelkar, wished to form
their own frankly "Responsivist" Party, and yet at the same
time wished to retain Congress membership. The spectacle
was a sorry one; the only parties who really acted upon prin-
ciple were the out and out Gandhians (the "No-Changer$>5)
on the one hand and the Indian Liberals on the other—both were
suffering from unpopularity for the time being, the political
scene being entirely occupied by the antics of the Swarajists,
who, to preserve a semblance of intransigence, resorted to all
kinds of stage effects: the Swarajist members in the Bombay
Provincial Council for instance taking for a session a vow of
mutism; and Motilal Nehru after (!) the Winter session, 1926,
arranging for a "walk out" from the Legislative Assembly.
The Congress at Belgaum (December 1924) under Mr. Gandhi's
presidency and a year later (at Cawnpore), under that of Mrs.
Naidu, laid it down that all parties were welcome to pursue
their own methods within the Congress the Gandhists their